You know that feeling you get when your waiter takes forever to return? Did they go home? Or when you’re in the examination room and five minutes becomes fifteen minutes? I have been known to stick my head out of the door and ask if they knew I was in there.

In those situations I feel like I’ve been forgotten and I lose confidence in the people caring for me.

I am waiting for a phone call – the phone call to set up surgery – and the doctor said it would be a week, and it’s almost a week. I’m getting squirrelly.

My typical reaction right now would be to go ahead and call them and track down the information. Yes, they said they’d call, but I’ll just handle it myself, thank you.

This time it is important for me to give them the full week, plus a day. This time it is important for me to know that they have this under control, that they haven’t forgotten about me, that they will care for me well.

I am giving them the opportunity to build my confidence in them. I have to have confidence that they know what they are doing. If I call, that doesn’t happen.